One curious component of a person's utility function is meta: someone else's increased utility causes one's utility to decrease, negative correlation. Vice versa is Schadenfreude.
Has a strange feeling of forcing a positive-sum game to be zero-sum when this component dominates.
Examine the psychological underpinnings of this effect. Why is it present? When is it present? What determines its strength?
Sometimes it costs nothing (other than the aforementioned effect) to be kind, yet people purposely avoid being kind. Possibly rational, kindness might have future negative consequences.
Of course, this effect causes, or reflects, deep social divisions.
No comments :
Post a Comment